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THE" LEADER FALLEN 



Jber mo n 



ON THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



BY JOHN M. KREBS, 

Pastor cf the Presbyterian Church :n Rutgers^street, New-Vork. 



NE W.YORK 



1 84 1. 



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4. 



THE LEADER FALLEN: 



Si Sermon 

PREACHED IN THE RUTGERS-STREET CHURCH, NEW-YORK, ON SABBATH 
MORNING, APRIL IITH, 1841, ON OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BY JOHN M. KREBS, 



PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 



" A nation's sighs, 
A nation's tears went with thine obsequies." 




N E W.Y O RK: ,/ 

1 r r^ ' 



v:>" 



HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-STREET. 



184L 



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rVew- York, April 15, 1841. 

Reverend Sir, 

In behalf of many of your congregation, and without any formal organization 
for the proceeding, we would respectfully ask of you for publication a copy of 
the impressive and highly-interesting sermon you delivered on the last Sab- 
bath morning, upon the occasion of the lamented death of our late chief ma- 
gistrate. 

We most heartily join with our brethren in this request, and esteem it a 
privilege, as well as a pleasure, to be the organ of communicating to you this 
expression of their gratification ; and we indulge the hope that you may find 
it compatible with your views and convenience to favour their wishes. 
We remain, dear sir, with great consideration. 
Your friends, 
LATHROP L. STURGES, 
GILBERT HOPKINS, 
EBENEZER PLATT, 
JOHN W. C. LEVERIDGE, 
JAMES M'CULLOUGH, 
CALEB BARSTOW, 
SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 
HENRY GRINNELL. 
THOMPSON PRICE. 
IRED HAWLEY. 
REV. JOHN M. KREBS, ) 

Pastor of the Rutgers-street Church. ) 



To Messrs. Lathrop L. Stukqks, Gilbert Hopkins, <fec. 

My RESPECTED FrIENDS ; 

In consenting to your request for a copy of the annexed discourse, I felt 
it to be due to you to gratify the desire which, in so kind a manner, you ex- 
pressed for yourselves, and have assured me is the desire of my people, to pos- 
sess it in a printed form. I was also willing to offer it as an humble contribu- 
tion to the very solemn occasion, which I doubted not would be improved and 
honoured by all my brethren. 

The delay in sending you the manuscript has been caused by the necessity 
of writing it out entirely from the few brief and hastily-prepared notes from 
which it was first preached. To do this, I have been obliged to confine my- 
self to such intervals as were allowed by many other engagements. I trust 
that I have succeeded in reproducing the substance of what was spoken, and 
that you will be able to recognise, what I have endeavoured to preserve as 
nearly as possible, the very language. But, notwithstanding this endeavour, I 
have not refrained from expanding some of the thoughts which were but rap- 
idly touched in preaching. The result has been to make the whole somewhat 
longer than I ventured to make it in the pulpit, even on such a special occa- 
sion. The reader, however, will have this compensating advantage, that if, as 
a hearer, he were too well bred to leave the preacher in the midst of his dis- 
course, he can lay down the author at pleasure. 

I am, very truly. 

Yours, &c., 

JOHN M. KREBS. 

New-York, April 27th, 1841. 



SERMON. 



" Moses my servant is dead." — Joshua, i., 2. 

These are the words of God. They are not, indeed, the 
first announcement of the event to which they refer. Not 
only had it been foretold to Moses and to the people that he 
should not live to conduct them into the Promised Land. 
They knew that he had gone up into the mountain to die 
there, and that he had been buried by the hand of the Lord, 
away from their presence and from their knowledge of his 
grave ; and now, after thirty days of weeping and mourning 
for him, the camp of Israel had concluded those funeral ob- 
sequies, which were suggested alike by their affection for 
his memory and by their respect for his official station. 
• They are the formal announcement of the event, or, if 
they may be so called, the official declaration, addressed to 
Joshua, " Moses' minister" and successor, and, through him, 
to all the people of Israek They are coupled with a com- 
mand to Joshua, now publicly recognised as the ordained 
leader and chief magistrate of the chosen people, to carry 
forward to its completion the great enterprise which had 
been begun by Moses : " Moses my servant is dead ; now, 
therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this peo- 



8 



pie, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the 
children of Israel." 

The death of Moses was an event of great solemnity and 
importance to himself, to Joshua, and to Israel. 

Death is to every man a most solemn and affecting thing. 
To him that suffers death, it is the end of all earthly joys 
and plans. It is the end of his probation, of all those emo- 
tions and actions which stamp the character for eternity, and 
for which the great, decisive, unending destinies of the su- 
preme tribunal are adjusted. The soul passes away from 
the very midst of busy care, of suffering, and of expecta- 
tion, and, it may be, from the very midst of persisted, and 
unrepented, and unpardoned sin, to test all its hopes and 
fears ; to confront the judgment of a holy God, and to meet 
its instant doom ; to inherit " glory, and honour, and immor- 
tality, and eternal life ;" or to inherit " indignation and wrath, 
tribulation and anguish." For with whatsoever character 
men are found by death, and they depart into eternity, they 
are also found at the bar of God ; and their character and 
their doom, accurately harmonizing, remain unaltered for- 
ever. " He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he 
which is filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that is right- 
eous, let him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him 
be holy still." "And these" (the wicked) "shall go away 
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life 
eternal." 

But, apart from this consideration, the death of Moses 
occurred at a time which, if it had been left to his selection 



or to ours, would have been, of all others, perhaps, the most 
unlikely to be chosen. 

Born in an era of persecution especially directed against 
the infants of the Hebrews in Egypt, he had been wonder- 
fully preserved by the daughter of their oppressor, and was 
educated under her fostering care, within the very precincts 
of the tyrant's palace. But, though bred amid the corrup- 
tions of an idolatrous court, he escaped all its allurements. 
Courted by ambition, a sacred patriotism was too firmly 
planted in his bosom to be overcome by the temptations 
that assailed him ; and he preferred to be a willing partaker 
of the afflictions of his countrymen. Learned in all the 
wisdom of the Egyptians, a sublimer science taught him to 
choose the service of the God of Israel, and to " esteem the 
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in 
Egypt." He was a man " mighty in works and deeds." 
When, at forty years of age, he went forth to visit his 
brethren, and he looked on their burdens, seeing one of them 
suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him that was op- 
pressed and slew the Egyptian taskmaster. For he sup- 
posed his brethren of the children of Israel would have un- 
derstood how that God by his hand would deliver them ; but 
they understood not. The rude and perverse speech of 
one of his stiff-necked countrymen, with whom he expostu- 
lated for offering wrong to his neighbour, alarmed him, lest 
his own slaying of the Egyptian, the day before, should be 
known to Pharaoh ; and he fled into the land of Midian, 
where he dwelt for forty years, amid the secluded and 
peaceful employments of pastoral life. At the end of that 

B 



1 

period, having led his flock to Mount Horeb, he received a 
commission from the Lord speaking from the burning bush : 
" I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which 
is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come 
down to deliver them. This Moses, whom they refused 
(saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge ?), the same did 
God send to be a ruler and a deliverer." Moses obeyed the 
call, returned to Egypt, confronted Pharaoh, and led out Is- 
rael, " after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of 
Egypt, and in the Red . Sea, and in the wilderness, forty 
years." During the time of their wanderings, he shared all 
the vicissitudes of their journey ; gave them counsel; estab- 
lished their political institutions and religious rites ; publish- 
ed the law which he received from Sinai ; aided them in 
their wars with the nations that opposed their progress ] 
saved them by his intercessions from the wrath of the Lord ; 
and, with one fatal exception,, suffered meekly their turbu- 
lence and reproaches. And when, of the generation of 
them that came out of Egypt, they who were twenty years 
old and upward were denounced, and sentenced to wander 
in the wilderness and to die, and he also received the sen- 
tence of death in his own body, he still manifested the same 
anxious solicitude for their prosperity, and to the last em- 
ployed himself, with patriotic and religious zeal, in providing 
for the comfortable establishment of their children in the 
Promised Land. 

The people were now encamped in the plains of Moab, in 
the vicinity of the mountains of Abarim, on the eastern side 
of the Jordan, in the inheritance that was assigned to the tribe 



1 1 



of Reuben. Often doubtless, during their long and painful 
pilgrimage, had Moses looked forward to the day when he 
should see the inheritance promised to the fathers, in the 
possession of their children, and their enjoyment of those in- 
stitutions of religion and government, in the arrangement of 
which he himself had borne so important a part in the trans- 
actions of Sinai, where God ordained and published his laws 
for Israel. 

But, as far as he himself was personally concerned, these 
high hopes were blasted. For their sin, the adult generation 
that came out of Egypt fell in the wilderness ; and for his 
own sin, albeit it was provoked by their petulance and re- 
bellion, he is not permitted to set foot in that goodly land. 
When Joshua was publicly ordained as his successor, sub- 
mitting to the dispensation of God in his own decease, 
Moses entreated but for permission to go over Jordan and 
survey the country ere he should die. In his valedictory 
charges and admonitions to Israel, he recites in a most af- 
fecting manner his petition and its answer. "I besought 
the Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God, thou hast begun 
to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand ; for 
what God is there in heaven or in earth that can do accord- 
ing to thy works, and according to thy might ? I pray thee. 
Jet me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, 
that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the Lord was 
wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me ; and 
the Lord said unto me. Let it suffice thee ; speak no more 
unto me of this matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, 
and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and south- 



1 '^ 

ward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes : for thou 
shall not go over this Jordan. But charge Joshua, and en- 
courage him and strengthen him : for he shall go over be- 
fore this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land 
which thou shall see." Fearful rebuke to Israel for their 
impiety and folly and insensibility to their peculiar mer- 
cies ; and severe the lesson taught in the sentence pronounced 
even upon Moses, the servant of God ; whose life is forfeit- 
ed, and at such a juncture, for his solitary act of rash and in- 
temperate forgetfulness to honour the God of Israel in the 
eyes of the people. Though he were eminent, useful, and 
godly, yet must he meet the penalty. And, humanly judg- 
ing, it could hardly be severer. 

For now, when they stood upon the borders of the prom- 
ised land ; when their perils and wandering in the wilderness 
were past ; when they had already won a foothold in the 
country, and its entire conquest was pledged ; when its 
goodliness had been actually surveyed and described by 
trusty messengers ; and when Israel was just about to enter 
upon its possession ; at such a juncture, Moses must transfer 
his authority to other hands. How hard, methinks, it must 
have been ! Grace and patience are exercised under disap- 
pointments ; they do not render us insensible to pain ; else 
were there no patience and submission. " No chastisement, 
for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous." In- 
stead of being permitted to lead the people into Canaan, to 
take possession, and to share with them the triumph and the 
joy, he must bid farewell to Israel, toil up the mountain's 
side alone, and from its summit, cast one comprehensive, one 



1 3 

first and last look over the broad and beautiful expanse, and 
then close his eyes upon that charming scene forever. 

Before him was spread out, as upon a map, the length and 
breadtli of that land for which his heart had panted with 
patriot affection and pious zeal. From the high peak on 
which he stood, in the centre of Reuben, his eye took in the 
distant view from the southern border of Judah to the far 
hmits of Naphtali and Asher ; and traversing the country 
from the city of palm-trees and the lovely vale of Jericho to 
Ephraim and to Dan, it surveyed, where this extensive and 
beautiful panorama was only bounded beyond the wide ex- 
panse by the waves of the Mediterranean. Now looking 
north from Nebo across Gilead ; now glancing from " the 
glory of Lebanon" to " the excellency of Carmel" or of 
" Sharon ;" now resting on that " goodly mountain" where 
the sanctuary should stand, his eye beheld a country not, 
as now, extensively desolate, barren, and neglected, but 
stately in the grandeur of mountain, forest, and flood; it was 
rich and lovely in its scenery, and fertile in its soil ; " a 
land flowing with milk and honey," and capable of sustain- 
ing a vast population. Verdant plains, and eminences 
crowned with woods, fat valleys, luxuriant pastures, shady- 
groves, refreshing streams, gushing fountains, and murm.ur- 
ing cascades, and ample lakes, and cities and villages stud- 
ding the land, everywhere diversified the face of the country. 
There, spread before his very eye, was the land which 
was to be the glory of all lands. There his fathers had 
dwelt ; and there Israel should dwell again. There was 
the object and the reward of all their toils. There God 



1 4 



should be honoured in the midst of his own nation, his rites 
observed, his worship free, his mercies distilled " as the 
dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the 
mountains of Zion." There, in forms and under influences 
unknown to other nations, should flourish the arts of civil- 
ized life ; there " patriot truth" convey her " noble precepts" 
and animate to lofty heroism ; and there the sacred pledges 
of "religion, liberty, and law" should forever abide. 

And he who surveyed this scene, while prophetic inspira- 
tions filled up the visions of the future, he was the mighty 
and the honoured chief of that people destined to be as the 
stars for multitude ; he was one of themselves ; he was 
raised up to be an inheritor with them of the toil and the 
glory together ; and to him it had been assigned to declare 
and execute their laws of Divine enactment ; to rule over 
them for their own advantage ; and to defend, preserve, and 
guide the destinies of that young but rising and important 
commonwealth — the only model of a true republic which the 
ancient world ever saw, for it was founded by God himself, 
and He gave to all the people the sacred charter of their 
franchises, their liberty, and their independence. 

Was it in the heart of a descendant of Abraham, of a pa- 
triot, and of a good man, to look upon such a scene, and not 
feel at least a momentary pang at the thought that his part 
in it had ended forever ! 

His days, indeed, were already greatly prolonged. He 
was a hundred and twenty years old. But, although he him- 
self had spoken of the decay of three score years and ten, 
and of the labour and sorrow that weaken the strength of 



1 5 



four score, (Psalm xc. 10) yet in his own person there were 
no traces of the infirmity of age. He was already four score 
when he assumed the command of Israel and achieved their 
deliverance ; and now, after forty years more of toils and 
dangers, " his eye was not dim, neither was his natural force 
abated." He was still qualified to control the public af- 
fairs ; and with Joshua associated with him in the adminis- 
tration, and with the Sanhedrim which he had appointed, it 
would seem as if, for many years to come, his hand might 
safely, peacefully, and honourably maintain the reins of gov- 
ernment. 

Such was the prospect. And yet, in such an hour, comes 
the command to relinquish all his hopes and expectations of 
so sublime a career. " The Lord said unto him. This is the 
land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto 
Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed : I have caused 
thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over 
thither. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in 
the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord ; and he 
buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against 
Beth-peor ; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this 
day." 

But while Moses was removed from earth, he departed 
not unblest. His heart beat with the ardour of patriotism ; 
and, though not his was the continued administration of the 
affairs of Israel, no mean jealousies nor malignant envies 
agitated his breast. At his own request a successor had 
been appointed. Joshua, who was his companion in the 
conferences of Sinai, and was close in his confidence, was 



\ 



1 6 



selected by the Lord ; upon him the hand of Moses was 
laid ; upon him he put his own honour, that the children of 
Israel might be obedient ; he presented him to the people, 
and caused him to be ordained by Eleazer the priest, and 
gave him a public charge, with ample directions for admin- 
istering the government. Afterwards, he made an address, 

in which he reviewed the history of Israel's deliverance, their 
sins and the rebukes of the Lord. Giving them injunctions 

respecting their future behaviour, he repeated his commend- 
ations of Joshua, and gave to him his valedictory charge. 
Then, blessing his countrymen, indulging his glowing fancy 
with the hopes and visions of their prosperity, and employ- 
ing his last thoughts of earth for the welfare of his people, 
he burst forth in the numbers of that sublim.e song, which 
may not be excelled for poetic diction, for captivating ima- 
gery, for pathetic reminiscences, for glowing anticipations, 
nor for pious confidence in that covenanted God, in whose 
hands, iu concluding, he thus left the seed of Israel : "There 
is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon 
the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. 
The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the ev- 
erlasting arms : and he shall thrust out the enemy from be- 
fore thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall 
dwell in safety alone : the fountain of Jacob shall be upon 
a land of corn and wine ; also his heavens shall drop down 
dew. Happy art thou, Israel : who is like unto thee, O 
people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who 
is the sword of thy excellency ! and thine enemies shall be 



1 7 

found liars unto thee : and thou shalt tread upon their high 
places." 

And while his departing hours were thus cheered in re- 
spect to his countrymen ; while he thus triumphed in advan- 
tages and victories already gained, and in Divine pledges 
that ensured the completion of the great enterprise for which 
God raised him up ; and while he felt such deep anxiety for 
the rights and honour of God among that people, he was 
equally favoured in respect to the personal, eternal issues 
of his decease. He died when his work was accomplished, 
and not before. He "died in the faith." He died cheered 
with the presence of his covenant and pardoning God. He 
had bade farewell to Israel, and stood alone ; but his Re- 
deemer was with him, and spake to him and blessed him. He 
looked upon the goodliness of the earthly Canaan, to part 
with its sight and its enjoyment forever ; but he looked up- 
ward also, and saw there a better country, that is, an heaven- 
ly, which he yet more desired. And God, not ashamed to be 
called his God, kissed away his breath, and carried him to 
the land which is afar off, and to the city which was prepared 
for him by the God who called him in Horeb ; the God of 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, his fathers ; the God, not of 
the dead, but of them that are alive with Him in the heaven- 
ly Canaan. 

But the death of Moses was not less solemn and interest- 
ing to the people of Israel, and to Joshua, his associate and 
successor. 

It was the characteristic of that people to be ever too 
mindful of themselves, and of their mere temporal advantage. 

C 



] 8 

Looking too fondly to their earthly prosperity, they were 
vain and boastful, while they trusted in themselves and in 
men, and did not trust to the superintending providence of 
God. Ever murnnuring against Moses for leading them into 
difficulties, and not caring for their degradation while they 
longed but for the flesh-pots of Egypt, they spoke contemp- 
tuously even of the power of God, as if, in obeying him, they 
had but gone out into the wilderness to die : " Can God furnish 
a table in the wilderness ?" Their unbelief cost them dear. 
Alternately rebelling and repenting, when their turbulence 
was rebuked, and thousands of them were smitten down, 
they sought the Lord ; but they flattered him and lied unto 
him, and tempted and provoked him, until the whole of the 
adult generation that came out of Egypt, save Joshua and 
Caleb, were destroyed, not one of them being permitted to 
enter the promised land. 

But the host that was now assembled on the east side of 
the Jordan, although generally acknowledged to be one of 
the best generations of the Jewish people, were not essen- 
tially unlike their fathers. Many of them were satisfied 
with the country in which they were now encamped, and 
they discouraged those of their brethren who were inclined 
to pass over Jordan. There were battles yet to be fought, 
and powerful enemies yet to be subdued. And now, when 
Moses was taken away, and they must go over and possess 
the land, how natural was it for them to magnify the dangers 
before them, while they felt as if the right arm of their 
strength had been cut off". They felt his value when they 
were punished by his death, and too little was their trust in 



1 9 



God while they relied on human power. Not only grieving 
for the death of one so worthy of their affection, they were 
filled with apprehension for the results of that death to them- 
selves. No longer shall they hear that voice give command 
to go forward ; no more shall his venerable form appear at 
their head ; nor his majestic countenance, which once shone 
with a glory that men might not behold, be turned to still the 
rebellious into awe, or to assure the good ; nor those hands 
be ever lifted again to bless them, which, when wearied, had 
but to ^e held up by Aaron and Hur, and they prevailed to 
the discomfiture of Amalek. And as for Joshua, he had, 
indeed, been tried during the life of Moses ; the Lord, too, 
had ordained him for this contingency, and they themselves 
had approved the appointment. But though they knew the 
spirit of the man, his honourable principles, his true-hearted 
patriotism, and the valour which he had formerly shown in 
their cause, yet, when they were just suffering their grief and 
the solemn rebuke administered by the death of his prede- 
cessor from whom they had hoped so much, it was not un- 
natural that they should entertain some apprehension of dis- 
aster and disappointment, when he was taken away and 
Joshua was promoted to his place at this most critical junc- 
ture of their affairs. How could they go forward without 
Moses ? and how will Joshua demean himself in the day of 
trial, when the authority of Moses has ceased, and the su- 
preme authority is transferred to his sole, unrestrained hand ? 
And will he be as Moses, and prove himself his disciple ? 
And will he lead the people to farther victories and success, 
and establish them in the land ? These were questions 



20 



which arose in many minds. Doubtless they arose even in 
the minds of the Canaanites, who feared to be dispossessed 
by the farther progress of this hitherto triumphant host. On 
all hands the accession of Joshua to the supreme authority 
could not be viewed but with deep and solemn anxiety. 

But while others might be thus speculating, the occasion 
must have awakened a very anxious solicitude in the breast 
of Joshua himself. The emergency, for which he had been 
appointed, now existed in all its solemnity. Moses is dead. 
But the work must be carried on. And the voic» of the 
Lord announces to him his position and his immediate duty. 
It was a post of deep responsibility. His is the office of 
actually leading the people into the promised land, of sub- 
duing it, and of establishing Israel in peace and honour. 
" Moses my servant is dead ; now therefore arise, go over 
this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which 
I do give to them, even to the children of Israel." This 
was a trial of his faith, and he needed encouragement. At 
the very outset of his course he might be met with the dif- 
ficulty, that he had no visible means of transporting his 
forces across the river, which at that season overflowed its 
banks and presented a formidable obstacle in its wide, deep, 
and rapid current. But he remembered the passage of the 
Red Sea, and the past successful encounters with a series 
of appalling dangers and embarrassments. And with the 
command and the promise of the Lord, he knew that he 
might be strong and of a good courage, and dismiss every 
fear, for he was to be sustained by the purposes and by the 
strength of the God of Israel. He instantly entered upon 



SI 



the duties of his station ; he displayed at once the wisdom, 
firmness, piety, and valour which the emergency demanded, 
and proved his fitness for the station he occupied. The 
confidence reposed in him was justified. He led the people 
over Jordan dry-shod ; the Lord caused a great fear of Is- 
rael to precede them ; the Amorites were overcome ; Jeri- 
cho was invested, taken by miracle, and destroyed ; the tem- 
porary discomfiture that rebuked the conquerors for the sin 
of Achan's rapacity for the spoils of victory, was repaired 
through the prudence and piety, and inflexible justice of 
Joshua ; the country was subdued and divided among the 
tribes ; the tabernacle was set up at Shiloh, and the worship 
of God was regularly established ; and finall}'-, after an ad- 
ministration of singular fidelity and success, leaving his 
country great, prosperous, and happy, and full of years, of 
honours, and of grace, Joshua died, and was gathered unto 
his fathers. 

It must be already evident to you, my friends, that I have 
selected this interesting incident of the death of Moses out 
of the sacred history, as well because of the striking resem- 
blances which it furnishes, as for the appropriate instructions 
which it suggests, for the very melancholy and solemn event 
which has deprived this nation of its illustrious and honoured 
chief magistrate. 

In common with our fellow-citi/ens, we united yesterday 
in rendering those public honours to his memory, which 
seemed appropriate, under the circumstances of our actual 
distance, both as to time and place, from the scene of his 
death and interment. And it is gratifying to know that, 



/ 



2 2 



however earnestly and honestly nnen may have differed with 
respect to his merits as a candidate for tlieir suffrages, yet 
all parties have united in their manifestations of regret for 
a departed patriot and honest man, and of respect for his 
distinguished station ; while they all feel a common inter- 
est in the probable or possible consequences of this nation- 
al bereavement. 

There is to us, my friends, in this bereavement, a voice 
/ of Providence as clear and distinct as was that word which 
/ the Lord spake to Joshua, the son of Nun, saying, " Moses 
my servant is dead." 

I have spoken of resemblances between these events — 
the death of the chief magistrate of the tribes of Israel, and 
the death of the chief magistrate of these United States. 

Consider the juncture at which this latter event occurred. 
It is not only remarkable as the first instance in the history 
of our country of a president dying in the actual exercise of 
his office, but it is yet more remarkable as to the time and 
circumstances of his death. 

After a period of great political excitement, which agita- 
ted this country from one end of it to the other, the people 
of the United States, with the highest enthusiasm, had ele- 
vated this illustrious man, unscathed by a most fiery ordeal, 
to the first post of the nation. It was not merely as a re- 
luard for past services. I repudiate the idea; and long may 
it be ere the sentiment shall generally prevail, that any of- 
fice, instead of being a trust for the public benefit, is confer- 
red as a reward for any service whatever, in any other sense 
. than as honour and emolument are the incidental results of 



2 3 



the public esteem thus manifested, and are identified with 
the appropriate fruits of the service in which the incumbent 
is actually employed. Offices are not sinecures nor pen- 
sions. He was elected because the people believed that the 
qualities he had previously evinced in the field, in the le- 
gislative hall, in the cabinet, were just grounds of confi- 
dence for the future, and eminently fitted him for the high 
station to which they called him. 

It is not to be denied that he was elected president in the 
hope that, under his administration, many of the difficulties 
and embarrassments under which the country labours would 
be removed. And, under this persuasion, he was elected 
almost by acclamation. 

At the constitutional period he was inaugurated, and im- 
mediately entered upon the arduous duties of his office. 
The imposing ceremony took place at the capital of the 
country, under the brightest auspices. The sun shone in 
noontide splendour on the scene ; he was surrounded by the 
legislators and judges of the land, and by a brilliant assem- 
blage of spectators ; he uttered, in a clear and manly voice» 
that was heard by every ear in that vast audience, the noble 
and patriotic sentiments which he announced as the princi- 
ples of his administration; looking upward to heaven, he 
confessed his reliance, not upon that unknown God whom 
the piety of mere Deism acknowledges, and who is too often 
invoked by the pubhc men of a Christian country, but upon 
the God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ; and then, with this sublime testimo- 
ny of his faith in our holy religion, laying his hand upon the 



24 



pages of its revelation, he swore by that God whom it pro- 
claimed as the Governor of the world and the Judge of na- 
tions and of men, that he would be faithful to the constitu- 
tion of his country. The oath was recorded in heaven. 
And the satisfaction and joy of his countrymen, and their 
confidence in his sincerity, were represented and proclaimed 
in the mighty shout of congratulation that went up from the 
lips of the fifty thousand freemen who were witnesses of 
that solemn appeal. 

And now before him was a career of glory. His plans 
for the prosperity of the country might indeed fail ; and there 
might be honest differences in the bosoms of the people in 
respect to what are some of the elements of national pros- 
perity, or as to the appropriate means for its attainment; and 
faction might assail and hinder. But, with the support of 
able counsellors, of a Congress between whom and himself 
existed mutual confidence, and of a nation whose wishes 
were not faintly indicated, of whose wishes he was the rep- 
resentative, and whose wishes and will, legitimately express- 
ed by the legislature, he was pledged to execute ; with his 
sagacious mind and honest heart and firm soul ; and, above 
all, with his beautifully manifested trust in our God, we 
had reasonable grounds to believe that he would administer 
the government for the best interests of the republic, and 
that God would be with him and give him good success. 

He entered upon his labours with a mind furnished with 
the accomplishments of elegant literature and inured to pa- 
tient thought ; with a tried reputation for incorruptible in- 
tegrity ; and with a body trained to hardships in the tented 



25 

field, and made healthy by the invigorating employments of 
agricultural life. Though verging upon three score years 
and ten, yet his eye was not dim, neither was his natural 
force abated. 

But, in rebuke to a nation that trusted too much in man 
and too httle in God, he is suddenly smitten, amid almost 
overwhelming labours, by disease, which lays the most vigo- 
rous men prostrate. The command went forth from Heaven, 
as to the patriarch upon Nebo ; and upon the very verge of his 
highest earthly usefulness and prosperity, within thirty days 
from his inauguration to be our president for four years, he 
is struck down from his eminent station, and his body is 
laid among the dead. 

Did he die too soon ? No more than Moses. Neither for 
the nation nor for himself. He was not permitted to wait 
until he should have fulfilled the trust which his country had 
committed to him, nor to receive their verdict upon its ex- 
ercise. But he fulfilled his course. He was the instrument 
of securing ultimately what his country required from him, 
and he was the imbodiment, not of a mere party's success, 
but of the people's success in his personal elevation. He 
accomplished also the work which God had appointed him 
to do. And, in the midst of his fame, a fame that he would 
not have sullied had he lived ; in the arms of a confiding 
country, like many a hero in the arms of victory ; ere yet 
the discontents of the unreasonable, or the ravings of mere 
faction, or, it might be, the mortification of unsuccess, had 
time to grieve his patriotic heart, he sinks away ; and in 
his death he overcomes even the lingering hostility of par- 

D 



26 



tisan opposition, that, living, felt itself at liberty to hinder his 
elevation ; and now — a nation assembles to weep at his la- 
mented tomb. 

No ; he died not too soon for himself. After such a ca- 
reer of usefulness, of prosperity, and of honour ; after as- 
sisting to launch the vessel of state under its new officers, 
and to send it forth upon its new voyage ; with no bitter re- 
grets, and with a truer spirit of resignation than that which 
has been ascribed to the disgraced favourite* of the English 
tyrant, 

"He gave his honours to the world again, 
His better part to Heaven, and sleeps in peace." 

We have had cheering and cumulative testimony of his 
reverence of the Christian religion ; of his habit, at least in 
later years, of searching the Scriptures, of meditation and of 
prayer; of his veneration for the Sabbath ; of his attendance 
upon public worship ; of his care to make the Bible a con- 
spicuous part of the furniture of the presidential residence ;t 
of his desire to be in the communion of the Christian 
Church, a desire perhaps too fastidiously postponed, lest 
his motives might be impugned ; and of all the influences 
of a pious mother's training and example. 

We heard his singular and impressive acknowledgment 
of the religion and authority of the Gospel when he was in- 
augurated. And we have the testimony of a respected min- 

* Wolsey. ' 

t This fact has come to the knowledge of the author since this sermon was 
preached ; but it is thought to be appropriate to incorporate it in this memoriaL 



27 



ister of the Episcopal Church who was with him in his last 
hours, that he died in the Christian's faith. But he has 
gone to the judgment of his God ; and we leave him with 
Him who searcheth the hearts, while we rejoice that men in 
high stations can feel their dependance upon His throne, 
and that our lamented chief was not only not ashamed to 
avow, but afforded so cheering evidences that he reposed on 
the grace of the crucified Saviour. 

Nor can we forget to revere the memory of one who, 
when sinking into death, when the strong mind failed, and 
the thoughts ran on unrestrained by the will, showed the 
patriotic emotions of his heart, and the love of country 
strong in death. For as Moses, at his departure, "gave 
Joshua, the son of Nun, a charge, and said. Be strong and 
of a good courage ; for thou shalt bring the children of Is- 
rael which I [the Lord] sware unto them ; and I will be 
with thee ;" so, it is said, that this venerable patriot, when 
just about to yield up his spirit, imagining himself to be at- 
tended by his constitutional successor, the then vice-presi- 
dent, he thus addressed him : " Sir, I wish you to under- 
stand THE TRUE principles OF THE GOVERNMENT. I WISH 

THEM CARRIED OUT. I ASK NO MORE." Let thcse words be 
engraven on his tomb. Let them be registered among the 
choice sayings of our worthiest statesmen. Let them be 
remembered and followed by the rulers of the land. 

To his country and to his successor, the announcement 
of this death, wiih these dying injunctions, is full of solemn 
and anxious interest. 

By the peculiar structure of our government, and the ar- 



2 8 

rangements under which his successor was elected, that 
successor enters without delay or obstruction upon his high 
duties. He is supposed to entertain the same general views 
of public policy which were held by President Harrison. 
Indeed, he was elected because his character and sentiments 
were well known ; and he was called by the same vote that 
elected his predecessor, and for the same purpose, that, in 
the contingency which has occurred, the will of the country 
might still be carried into effect. But, although no general 
change is to be apprehended, often the more to be dreaded 
on account of the confusion and revolution incidental to a 
change of rulers and of public policy in a government hke 
ours, yet it is not to be concealed that, mingled with the 
solemn feelings produced with this event, speculation is al- 
ready rife, and a very deep anxiety pervades the public 
mind, in relation to the particular lines and details of the 
pohcy, and of the probable influence upon the public pros- 
perity, of the course that may be pursued by the present 
chief magistrate of the nation.* 

But as Moses died, and neither did Israel suffer, nor Josh- 
ua prove himself unworthy nor incompetent to be their lead- 
er, such, we trust, may be the results in our case. Do we 
not know the man whom we elected for this conjuncture ? 
Are his principles to be investigated and discovered at this 
late day ? Is not his public career known ? Has he not 
hitherto sufficiently evinced his wisdom, his integrity, his 
firmness, and his conscientious self-denial for the sake of 

* When this was preached, the proclamation of President Tyler had not 
yet reached this city. 



•2 9 



principle ? And although these are all better grounds of con- 
fidence than any specific pledges manufactured for the occa- 
sion, there have been no faint nor unintelligible intimations ut- 
tered during the previous canvassing, which satisfied the peo- 
ple that they were as safe as men can be when they must trust 
in men ; that the late and the present president were equal- 
ly worthy of their confidence ; and that they were equally 
ready to justify the reasonable expectations which had been 
formed of the discretion, republicanism, and integrity of the 
new administration, and of the leading characteristics of 
their policy. Divided and rebuked as were the Israelites 
while Moses was ahve, they were all united under Joshua. 
Though a part preferred the eastern shores of the Jordan for 
their inheritance, yet went they all together to possess the 
country that was promised beyond the river ; and the gener- 
ation that entered and subdued Canaan were singularly 
prosperous and singularly united in their attachment to each 
other, and to their religious and political institutions. " And 
the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, that 
they might know, that as He was with Moses, so would He 
be with Joshua ; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, 
all the days of his life." And may it not be that, under the 
influence of this solemn rebuke of Divine Providence, an in- 
fluence already so great in moderating the asperity of party 
strife, and in bringing our people together as brothers to la- 
ment their common loss, the nation may humble itself be- 
fore the throne of Heaven and confess its common trans- 
gressions ; may acknowledge that there is a God that judg- 
eth in the earth ; may learn the evil and sinful nature of 



30 

mere faction. And now that those who were the prominent 
occasions of their mutual hostility are removed out of their 
way, and one of ihem is buried out of their sight, they may 
mingle — -would that they were resolved to mingle — as patri- 
ots and as Christians, as men humbling themselves to walk 
with God and to fear his name, and as men to whom is 
given " One country, one constitution, and one desti- 
ny !" Uniting, not against each other, but with each other ; 
not as contending parties, but as countrymen and brethren ; 
uniting, to make it the interest of those who administer the 
government to administer public affairs only for the public 
good, and to honour the God of our fathers ; uniting, to el- 
evate to office and to sustain in office only such men as shall 
be wise, and honest, and good, a terror to evil-doers and a 
praise to them that do well. Happy for our country ex- 
alted in righteousness ; happy for our public men to rule 
over a united, patriotic, and affectionate people ; 

" To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, 
And read their history in a nation's eyes." 

" Happy is that people that is in such a case ; yea, happy 
is that people whose God is the Lord." 

I speak all these things to-day without fear of being mis- 
interpreted. I speak, indeed, to a congregation which, re- 
spectively preferring different candidates for their suffrages, 
is composed both of those who voted against, and of those 
who voted for the illustrious citizen, whose death, as our 
ruler, we mourn as a common loss. I speak to a congrega- 
tion which has ever desired me to utter the sentiments of 



3 1 



my heart ; which, without the mean jealousy too often felt, 
has ever desired that here, without descending into the arena 
of mere party strife or to mere party advocacy, the pulpit 
should speak out its great salutary principles ; which has 
ever approved, when exercising the rights of a freeman and 
the duties of a minister of religion, I choose anywhere and 
everywhere to speak or to act for what I deem to be the 
true welfare of my country. Yea, I need not to-day this 
semblance of an apology. We stand to-day by the sepul- 
chre. In it are buried the remains of opposition. A gen- 
erous people wars not with the dead. In such an hour, too, 
partisans feel that they are brethren, while they mourn as 
for a father. And in this tribute, I do but respond to and 
express the feelings which your own hearts have borne hith- 
er to-day. 

And while it seemed proper to take this notice of a great 
public bereavement, it may be that, from the analogies that 
have often suggested themselves to my mind and to yours, 
as we have meditated together on the passage of Scripture 
history on which this discourse is founded, we may not un- 
aptly derive instruction as to our interests, and hopes, and 
duties. 

See how absolutely all human affairs are under the con- 
trol of God. 

" He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, 
and among the inhabitants of the earth : and none can stay 
his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou ?" Such was 
the confession extorted by experience from the heart of a 
proud heathen king. Manifold are the instruments of Je- 



32 



hovah's will. All moral causes and all physical causes ex- 
ecute his pleasure, whether it be for the prosperity or the 
adversity of men and of nations. " He watereth the hills 
from his chambers, and he causeth the grass to grow for the 
cattle, and herb for the service of man." And again " He 
turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of 
them that dwell therein." "Fire, and hail, and stormy va- 
pour fulfil his word." " The Lord bringeth the counsel of 
the heathen to naught ; he maketh the devices of the people 
of none effect." " By him kings reign, and princes decree 
justice." " He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthrow- 
eth the mighty. He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and 
maketh the judges fools. He removeth away the speech of 
the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. 
He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them ; he enlar- 
geth the nations, and straiteneth them again. He taketh 
away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and 
causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no 
way. They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh 
them to stagger like a drunken man." 

Death is an agent of the Almighty ; and it is employed to 
go forth among men, that he may make known among them 
the sovereignty of God. And he approaches often to exe- 
cute the Divine will in a form and in an hour that men think 
not of. Men lay their plans as if they would certainly suc- 
ceed ; and their success, too, is in a great measure depend- 
ant upon their living to execute them. They perplex them- 
selves with abundant cares and various enterprises ; but 
they think that in a little while they shall easily conduct 



3 3 



them, and they shall have arranged all things to their satis- 
faction, and they shall have leisure and enjoyment. Tell 
them that they may be disappointed. Tell them that death 
is coming on, they know not how soon, and that they ought 
to set their houses in order, and to prepare also for the judg- 
ment. But they reply, or they virtually reply by their busy 
devotion to earthly concerns, "We cannot now disentangle 
ourselves, and we must prosecute these plans to the end. 
Neither can we die until such and such projects are accom- 
plished ; if we were to be called away now, everything 
would be left in confusion — everything would go to ruin." 
Their lives are indeed important, both to themselves and to 
their connexions. But whether men will or will not number 
their days to apply their hearts unto wisdom, their " days 
are determined ; the number of their months is with God ; 
he has appointed their bounds that they cannot pass ;" and 
no matter how important their affairs, or necessary their lives 
to make their provision for earth and for eternity, death shall 
come at the appointed hour, the unexpected hour, the frus- 
trating and the blighting hour ; and neither unpreparedness, 
nor business, nor tender relations, nor official eminence, nor 
even national cares and duties on which the safety of an em- 
pire depends, can exempt man from the untimely stroke, 

Moses was the servant of God, in high honour, and faith* 
ful to his trust. The eyes of all Israel looked upon him, 
and the hearts of all Israel anxiously depended upon his 
guidance. But though they might say he could illy be 
spared, God said unto him, " Get thee up into this mountain 
and die." He is not tied to instruments. 

E 



3 4 

Death is an agent of the Almighty not sufficiently ac- 
counted of. We look at many other contingencies, but we 
do not look at this one. The great anxiety of the friends of 
the late president was to elect him. It was defeat they 
dreaded — and not his death. And when they had succeed- 
ed, and saw him invested with that power which he was to 
wield for the extrication of the country, and to advance its 
prosperity, who dreamed of the sudden nearness of his 
death ? " There are many devices in men's hearts ; never- 
theless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." Jealous 
of the corrupting influence of power, they proposed meas- 
ures to prevent their favourite from being ambitious. He 
should not be tempted to selfishness ; nor should he fall a 
prey to sycophants, and flatterers, and partisan spoilers. 
They would guard him and make him the patriot president 
of the whole people. They would limit him to one term of 
four years. But God had fixed upon a briefer limit. Within 
thirty days He stepped forth from his place, and settled the 
question as to this man's continued integrity. And an agen- 
cy which kings and presidents cannot resist, strikes down 
from his lofty seat the envied possessor of power, and renders 
forever impossible his becoming a tyrant and a despot, 

"Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the 
west, nor from the south ; but God is the judge ; he putteth 
down one and setteth up another," Here is the hand of 
God, Who cannot see it ? The people made themselves 
one ruler, and proud were they of their power. But God 
has given them another ere yet the shout of congratulation 
ceased to echo through the land. 



3 5 



And now, are we not rebuked by the voice of the Lord ? 

We have trusted in an arm of flesh ; we are yet trusting 
in an arm of flesh. Our rebuke is for a sin like that of Ju- 
dah. " The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, 
was taken in their pits ; of whom we said, Under his shadow 
we shall live among the heathen." If I mistake not, here is 
one great and characteristic fault of the American people. 
Endowed with so vast an inheritance, and with such vast 
franchises, we are naturally jealous of our rights, and our 
love of freedom degenerates into the abuse of it. While 
vigilantly guarding our immunities, we trespass upon the 
righis of God. Bent on national prosperity, we mistake its 
elements and forget the arm on which it depends. We 
have cast oflf fear and restrained prayer. Oh ! how little 
dependance has there been on God. And even now, when 
the rebuke is upon us, v;e are still looking to men, and fe- 
licitating ourselves, not so much with acknowledgments for 
the mercy, or with prayer for its continuance, that we have 
such a constitution, and such a ruler in the stead of him 
that has been taken away ; and we are still pleasing our- 
selves with the fond expectations which we have hitherto 
cherished, and still our dependance is upon men ! But one 
is gone, and another may disappoint us or may be taken 
away. Our leaders may be powerful in our own sight. 
But they have no power without God ; and they have none 
against Him. They may be very important in our estima- 
tion ; but they may not be so in His. He can carry on his 
purposes without them. Yea, he may turn their counsels 
into foolishness, and through their folly or ambition, He may 



3 6 



vex us in His hot displeasure. Through them he can 
scourge us with factious strifes, with party spoHations, with 
wasteful extravagance, with wars and defeats, with general 
corruptions and wide-spread desolations. And might He not 
thus contend with us ? " Hear, heavens ; and give ear, O 
earth ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken ; I have nour- 
ished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against 
me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's 
crib ; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 
Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of 
evil-doers, children that are corrupters ! they have forsaken 
the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to an- 
ger, they are gone away backward" [they are alienated]. 
Thus degenerated Israel. And have we preserved the vir- 
tue and the piety of our fathers ? How remarkable and how 
kind has been the Providence of God towards this land. 
Before us the heathen have been cast out. We have tri- 
umphed in war. Our name is great in the earth. Our ter- 
ritory is vast ; our population rapidly multiplying ; our riches 
are increased ; our institutions are our own boast and the ad- 
miration of mankind. But did we get them by our own 
might ? Is their tenure in the breath of men ? Are we inde- 
pendent of God ? Was Israel independent of Him? Her 
sceptre is gone ; and her land has been trodden down by the 
oppressor for thousands of years. And is America more ne- 
cessary or dearer to Him than was Israel ? " The nation 
and kingdom that will not serve him shall utterly perish." 
"What is the vine-tree more than any tree, or than a 
branch which is amonr^ the trees of the forest ? Thus sailh 



37 



the Lord God, As the vine-tree among the trees of the 
forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will set my face 
against them ; and they shall go out from one fire, and an- 
other fire shall devour them ; and ye shall know that I am 
the Lord when I set my face against them." 

Or is the mere stability of our country and its institutions, 
even if they could survive amid the decay of virtue and pi- 
ety, the last and best blessing that we need fronn his throne ? 
It was much to be a dweller in the goodly heritages of Ca- 
naan. But it was far more to be a " fellow-citizen with the 
saints and of the household of God." And it is ruin, to be 
an " alien from the commonwealth of God's spiritual Israel 
and a stranger from the covenants of promise." Our civil 
and political advantages and our temporal blessings are not 
the end ; they are but the means of higher blessings ; and 
even they can be secured to us only by the arm and the fa- 
vour of the covenanted Jehovah, "the Lord our God." The 
Jews boasted of their free descent from Abraham, while 
they were the tributaries of Rome and the slaves of their own 
lusts. " If the Son shall make you free, ye shali be free in- 
deed." We are rich, and wise, and prosperous, and free, 
only as we possess the glorious liberty of the children of 
God ; only as we become reconciled unto Him, and we 
serve Him with our whole heart; only as we become the 
heirs of His grace through Jesus Christ. 

And now, shall we not hear the rod and Him that ap- 
pointed it? Shall we not return unto the Lord our God, 
who have been rebuked for our iniquity ? Shall we not take 



o 



8 



with us words, and turn unto the Lord ; and say unto Him, 
Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously : so will 
we render the calves of our lips. Assur shall not save us : 
we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say any more 
to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods : for in thee the 
fatherless findeth mercy. 

" I will heal their backsliding, I will love ihem freely : for 
mine anger is turned away from him." 

But His rebukes are tempered with mercies. 

" Death is come up into our windows, and is entered into 
our palaces." The voice of God to us is, " My servant is 
dead." And He means that we shall listen to His voice, and 
learn wisdom, and obey His kind advice. The princes die, 
and shall not the living lay it to heart ? " Put not your 
trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no 
help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in 
that very day his thoughts perish." " Cease ye from man, 
whose breath is in his nostrils ; for wherein is he to be ac- 
counted of ?" We may be thankful that, in carrying on His 
designs. He can raise up and qualify men to fill the places 
of those that are taken away ; that when a Moses dies, a 
Joshua is already ordained to accede to the vacant magis- 
tracy. It is an earnest of good. It is mercy mingled with 
judgment. He has not requited us according to our trans- 
gressions. He has not yet profaned our princes, nor given 
us over to a curse, nor His nation to reproaches. Let His 
goodness lead us to humble repentance. Let us pray for 
our rulers, that God would preserve their integrity, bless 
their plans, and keep them alive for us, and that we may 



39 



lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 
Let us obey His voice, for " thus saith the Lord, Let not the 
wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man 
glory in his might ; let not the rich man glory in riches. But 
let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and 
knowelh me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving 
kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth ; for in 
these things I delight, saith the Lord." 

Let our rulers he admonished of their responsibility to 

God. 

Government is an ordinance of Divine appointment. The 
notion of a social compact, formed in some unknown age 
and undiscovered country, to be the basis of all civil author- 
ity, is but the baseless fabric of visionaries, and is adapted, 
at best, to round the periods of political declamation. No 
historian has registered its birth. No man can "declare its 
generation." There are no witnesses of this talisman's po- 
tent influence. " The powers that be are ordained of God." 
However absurd the abuse of this scripture doctrine, when 
it is perverted to sanction tyranny, and to invest with awful 
and mysterious terrors " the Divine right of kings" to op- 
press their .subjects, this doctrine itself is the only theory 
which explains to us the secret of the law's authority, and 
the majesty of its influence over the public conscience. I 
am speaking of government, not of its forms, nor of kings 
nor presidents. But the abuse of the doctrine has been 
gradually giving way before the light of Divine truth, the 
advancing intelligence of the age, and the progress of hu- 
man liberty and the assertion of the sacred rights of man. 



4 



It is understood, in our own country at least, that govern- 
ment is instituted, not for the sake of its incumbents, but for 
the sake of the commonweahh. And, under our constitu- 
tions, the rulers of the country owe their personal elevation 
to authority, to the favour and confidence of the people, to 
whom they are directly responsible. Hence it occurs that 
men in power " study to show themselves approved unto" 
— their constituents. Upon their success here, depend their 
continuance in elective offices, and much of their enjoyment 
when they shall have retired with honour from their public 
functions. With many, it is to be feared, this is their 
greatest concern, that they may give to the people from 
whom their trust was derived, such an account as will ob- 
tain their favourable verdict. 

But see here what the Providence of God teaches, by 
his taking away our president at such a time. He waited 
not upon him, nor suffered him to wait until he might ren- 
der to the people, after four years, an account of his public 
trust. He took him away from the very threshold of his 
authority, to render his account at a higher bar than that of 
public opinion. We must all appear before the judgment- 
seat of Christ. 

Think, then, of this momentous fact. For all our personal 
conduct in private life ; for all our deportment in our domes- 
tic and social relations ; for our fidelity, also, in our exer- 
cise of public authority ; for each, and for all, we must give 
account to God. Think of this, ye living men ; think of it, 
ye that are in official stations ; think of it, ye that sit upon 
the high places of the earth. It is much to gain the suf- 



4 1 



frages of your fellow-men. No man ought to be indifferent 
to the good opinion of the good and of the wise ; and who 
can but admire him 

" Who sinks to rest, 
With all his country's wishes blest 1" 

But it is more than all the universe to obtain the approving 
verdict of God, when He shall say, " Well done, thou good 
and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

It does not follow, because men are great and famous m 
the earth, or because their fellow-men admire and approve 
them, that they have no need of the pardon of sin, and no 
need of the favour of God ; nor does it follow that they are 
certain of His approbation and eternal joy, when He shall 
judge the secrets of all hearts. 

You must stand at His bar. The small and the great 
must stand there, to be judged for all the deeds done in the 
body. And what shall be their doom that have not made 
their peace with God, through the blood of the Lamb ? 
Whither shall they — even the kings of the earth, and the 
great men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and 
every bondman and every freeman — whither shall they, that 
made not Christ their Advocate with God — whither shall 
they flee to hide themselves from the face of Him tJiat sit- 
teth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb ? 

" Be wise now, therefore, ye kings ; be instructed, ye 
judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice 

F 



42 

with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye 
perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. 
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." 

See here the transitory and uncertain tenure hy tuhich 
men hold the joys and honours of this world. 

Set not your affection on the things that are in the earth. 
The things which are seen are temporal. They fall from 
our nerveless grasp ; they fade before our vision ; they fly 
away ; or we ourselves are hurried away from them. 

Come hither and learn a lesson from Death. 

Behold this picture. On the mountain-tops and in the 
valleys, in the cities and in the fields, there is a gathering 
of the people. In all parts of the land they assemble with 
mighty enthusiasm. See upon their faces the flush of high 
excitement ; listen to the tongue of the eloquent orator ; 
hear the resolves in which they loudly proclaim their in- 
domitable purpose. They intend to call from his peaceful 
abode, yonder Cincinnatus, approved in arms, approved in 
statesmanship, approved in integrity. And see, they have 
succeeded against all opposition. They have placed him, 
not upon a kingly throne, but upon a seat that is higher than 
the highest throne on earth — the chosen ruler of a free peo- 
ple — enshrined in the hearts of a nation of freemen. Myri- 
ads surround him to swell the imposing pomp of that high 
inauguration, where he stands among them, proudly eminent 
with native and official dignities. 

But now let one little moon have barely time to wax and 
wane. The gates of that princely mansion, which so lately 
opened to receive him, who went thither in his state, as the 



43 



representative of the people's sovereignty, are again opened 
amid silence and gloom. From the portal issues a mourn- 
ful procession. It is lengthened out by the continual in- 
crease of the multitudes that gather there again. Silent, 
awe-struck, amazed — so sudden and so unexpected was the 
summons — they move with slow and solemn step. The 
only sound that falls upon the ear of that deep silence, in 
measured intervals, is the sound from a funeral gun. They 
have reached a tomb. And there, among the dead, they 
have laid that patriot descendant of a line illustrious in the 
archives and contests of freedom — that warrior, scholar, 
statesman, ruler — to lie in the dust of the earth ! 

And shall men, frail and dying men, in spile of such af- 
fecting lessons, still dwell so fondly on the things that per- 
ish, while they neglect the things that are unseen and eter- 
nal. Oh ! remember that you must die. You love to for- 
get it. You postpone the needful preparation. But soon, 
ah soon, approaching death will stand before you. Sud- 
denly he may come. He may surprise you in the midst of 
your pleasures and sins. And when he comes, he will show 
no pity, he makes no difference in his prey. Not only the 
hoary head is rapidly and rudely levelled in the dust by him, 
but he lays his hand also upon the cheek of youth and beau- 
ty ; and while yet the bloom of health and the smile of hope 
are dancing in defiance there, they fade and wither at the 
touch of his breath. 

Repent,, then ; repent timely ; repent now. Live unto 
God. Go unto him through Christ the Mediator. Greater 
shall be your riches, joys, and honours, than if you inherit- 



44 

ed the earth. Jesus is our Joshua to lead to the higher 
Canaan. " For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain " 
He will be nigh thee in the swellings of Jordan. He shall 
lead thee to victory over death. He will establish thee in 
the " inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for them that are kept 
by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to 
be revealed in the last time." 

Now unto the King eternal, immortal^ invisible, the only 
wise God, he honour and glory forever and ever. Amen, 



"7 



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